I'm not even sure if AAA is high reward for new IP though anymore. What was the last AAA game to truly come out of nowhere and break through? Most of the "big" things now have been around for a long time...

How much of Darksiders 2's money was spent on marketing rather than the actual game?

I think that IPs should be handled as something other than a magic bullet. Rather, they should be AA efforts designed to create a series that can be rehashed many times over and still be enjoyable. The Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Megaman, Ace Attorney, and Mario franchises are good examples of this.

Simply put, I see IPs as a formula that is designed to attract specific types of people. People who play Doom II might not enjoy Magic Carpet, despite both games having a first-person perspective. This is because of the aesthetics, level design, and overall gameplay of the two are completely different. Companies shouldn't try to say 'We have the greatest shooter ever", rather they should take aim at people who enjoy specific kinds of shooters.

Generic games are forgotten about, but ones that are unique will be remembered and be making many more sales over time, especially in this age of digital distribution. This is because the people who play memorable games will talk about them, and make a case to other people to buy them. This is exactly why GOG is able to bring in money, because it specializes in capitalizing on that people have fond memories of the games they have played.

Jason Rubin (President of THQ) posted a message for the public this evening. He puts a more positive spin on things saying the company can make it out of this. Which of course makes sense, him saying they are doomed won't do any good. Still it does seem like the sky hasn't fully fallen yet.

http://www.thq.com/us/go/article/view/homepage_article/261277/thq_community_message_from_jason_rubin

THQ does not own FreeSpace
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/FreeSpace_3#Current_license_status

Ugh. It looks like that the situation with the license is muddled. InterPlay says it doesn't have the license, but the Trademark and Patent Office says otherwise, THQ might have the license, and Stompybot purchased the trademark, which may or may not be something - Stompy Bot's website says "Access Denied".

So...licensing limbo. Grand.

I am a fan of THQ and I hope they continue especially since they have switched back to focusing on the PC market and I want to play COH2 and Metro LL.

It's even weirder than that, with Interplay still holding on to the trademark, they made an application recently for it to cover video games, movies, comics, and board games

Dishonored comes to mind.

I think the way communist states have all worked out (corrupt, collapse, or strong swings towards capitalism) is evidence. I think the general distaste for extremes is evidence.

Those things do happen to be evidence (potentially good, misleading, or basically useless evidence remains to be seen, but at least evidence), that quote is not evidence, it was given by someone who didn't even have the evidence you just mentioned, because it hadn't happened yet.

It's the equivalent of "Jesus said" or "Rush has been saying that for years!" It gets more scrutiny because of the effect it has when people believe it, just like Islam and Christianity get more scrutiny than Gnostic cults with 10 members.

If you're going to make the statement, at least use a good argument, is all I'm saying. That quote is something that was said by a person that had very little but personal opinion backing it up.